Productive performance of twin Friesian calves in Egypt

 

H M A Gaafar, A A Shitta, Sh M Shamiah and H A B Ganah

 

Animal Production Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Nadi El-Said Street, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.      Tel.: 0020473239156        Fax: 0020473229507    

E-mail: dr.gaafar@hotmail.com

 

Abstract

Data from the records of 1185 single and 58 twins male and female Friesian calves occurring during the consecutive 8 years from 1997 to 2004 were collected from Sakha Animal Production Research Station. Animals were used to study the effect of twinning on the live body weight, body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion and economic efficiency.

Results revealed that twining rate in dairy Friesian cows was 4.67% and the percentage of freemartin was 0.64%. The average live body weight and daily weight gain were significantly higher (P<0.05) for single compared to twin claves (430, 0.54 vs. 384, 0.49 kg, respectively). However, sum of body weight and weight gain were significantly higher (P<0.05) for twin compared to single calves (768, 0.99 vs. 430, 0.54 kg, respectively).

Feed conversion rate was significantly higher (P<0.05) for twin calves compared with single calves. The cost of daily feed intake, price of daily weight gain and feed cost per kg gain was significantly lower (P<0.0), while economic efficiency was significantly higher (P<0.05) for twin compared to single calves.

The sum body weight and economic efficiency of twin calves increased by 79 and 25% compared with single calves.

It could be concluded that twin calves showed higher total body weight, total body weight gain, feed conversion rate and economic efficiency and lower feed intake and feed cost compared with single calves. So, it is very important to increasing beef production in Egypt. 

 

Key words: Friesian calves, twins, body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion and economic efficiency.

 

Introduction

Ron et al (1990) reported the twinning rate in Israeli Holsteins to be 4.8 and 6.9% for second and third parity cows, respectively. They estimated heritability to be 0.10 using a threshold model (TM), but only 0.02 using a linear model (LM). The heritability of twinning rate in Friesian cows in Egypt using a linear model was 0.028 (Shamiah et al 2007).

Twinning might be reasonable to emphasize if the economic benefits from such research, if successful, might be very great. For example, Turman et al (1971) reported that cows producing twin weaned an additional 171 kg of calf as compared to those weaning singles. Although twinning reduced calf survival, dams producing twin at birth weaned 70.8% more calves than dams with a single birth, which resulted in a 48.1% increase (336 vs. 227 kg) in total weaning weight (Echternkamp and Gregory 2002). Gregory at al (1996) compared growth traits of single and twin born calves and reported that twin calves were about 20% lighter at birth and about 10% lighter at weaning. They also pointed out that twin calves were lighter at slaughter, even though they were 3-wk older than single-born calves. Single born calves also had greater average daily gain during suckling period compared with twin (1.1 vs. 1.0 kg/d). They postulated that the greater ADG reflects both pre- and postnatal maternal effects on calf growth.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of twining on live body weight, body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion and economic efficiency of Friesian calves.